Grammar Screening | March 6th — 19th

The entry period is officially over! Now, the next two weeks (until March 19th) are for the grammar screening. In this, we will go over each of the entries and judge their grammar. Our judging criteria are as follows:

Punctuation (5 points)

Spelling (5 points)

Capitalization (5 points)

Paragraph Structure (5 points)

Consistent Verb Tenses (5 points)

There are 25 points total, and a work must get 20 points or higher to pass. Otherwise, the entry will not make it past this round to the final judging. Works do not have to have perfect grammar to pass this grammar screening, but that does mean that we will still dock points for grammar mistakes during the final judging. So still make sure your grammar is edited to give you better chances! 

One of the biggest grammar issues we are finding throughout the entries is incorrect dialogue structure, which makes entries lost points for both punctuation and capitalization. Make sure to review when to put a comma and when to put a period when you're writing dialogue. (We will try to post a chapter explaining the rules for that as well.)

If your entry does not pass the grammar screening, we hope this doesn't dissuade you from entering the next season of the Gravity Falls Wattys! Between now and then, do your best to learn the grammar rules of writing fiction so that you can pass (not to mention get more reads on your story!).

Thank you all for entering, and we wish you all luck!